Whiting: Ranch offers family mystery

Kate Hernandez has her schoolwork checked by docent/teacher Allie Eckert while role-playing in a one-room schoolhouse at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The El Toro Grammar School was built in 1890 and later moved to this location. It housed grades 1-8 and was used until 1914.PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

There's something very cool – and very weird – about stepping across the threshold of history and wondering if your DNA has already been there.

On this day I'm with Allie Eckert, a docent at Heritage Hill Historical Park, and Eckert has invited me to visit the old ranch house where the Whitings of Whiting Ranch once lived.

I'm more like a Whiting by way of Texas, something I didn't know until a few weeks ago. But you never know. And Eckert, a history buff, is pretty darn sure there's a Whiting family connection.

I follow Eckert past a front door and into an old adobe. There's a survey map on the wall that's more than a little eerie. It depicts a huge chunk of what is now Lake Forest and Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park.

The date is 1885 and the owner is Dwight Whiting.

Cuz?

• • •

It's strange how Orange County is sometimes called a place without history.

That's just silly.

The Tongva, Luiseño and Juaneno – more accurately called the Acjachemen – are believed to have lived in Orange County at least 8,000 years before colonization. And our streets, schools and cities testify to more recent history.

In 1769, Father Junipero Serra famously arrived here. In the 1800s, the great ranchos and ranches took shape.

At fist blush, Heritage Hill's 4.1 acres seem to be in the unlikeliest of places, behind a strip mall. Then you realize, oh yeah, the surrounding development came long after the old adobe.

In fact, even Dwight Whiting came long after the adobe's original owner, Don Jose Serrano. It was Serrano who in the late 1850s built the original adobe on the 10,688-acre Rancho Canada de Los Alisos. And, yes, Los Alisos also is a street.

Kate Hernandez has her schoolwork checked by docent/teacher Allie Eckert while role-playing in a one-room schoolhouse at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The El Toro Grammar School was built in 1890 and later moved to this location. It housed grades 1-8 and was used until 1914. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Docent Allie Eckert talks to visitors inside St. George's Episcopal Mission at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The mission was built in 1891 and moved to this location. The interior furnishings are original. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Students from the Montessori on the Lake school in Lake Forest get a tour of the Bennett Ranch House at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Students from the Montessori on the Lake school in Lake Forest try washing clothes by hand at the Bennett Ranch House at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. Docent Allie Eckert,right in black, led the tour. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Student Lucas Marquez, from the Montessori on the Lake school in Lake Forest, tries to grind corn into flour at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Serrano Adobe was built in 1858 by Don Jose Serrano and is part of the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Docent Allie Eckert tells students from the Montessori on the Lake school in Lake Forest about a tube radio at the Bennett Ranch House at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The house was constructed in 1908 and got electricity in 1928. The radio would have been bought shortly after that. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Visitors stroll past St. George's Episcopal Mission at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The mission was built in 1891 and moved to this location. The interior furnishings are original. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Julia Dawson, left, gets help with her school bonnet from Meghan Ringer at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The girls were visiting the park with their classmates from Montessori on the Lake in Lake Forest. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Bennett Ranch House, now at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest, was originally built in 1908. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Visitors enjoy St. George's Episcopal Mission at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The mission was built in 1891 and moved to this location. The interior furnishings are original. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Visitors dressed in period attire enter the one-room schoolhouse at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The El Toro Grammar School was built in 1890 and later moved to this location. It housed grades 1-8 and was used until 1914. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A ball glove and toys sit on a bookshelf at the Bennett Ranch House at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The house was built in 1908. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Sombreros and ropes hang on the wall with a photo of Robert and Sabina Serrano and their baby Ruperta at the Serrano Adobe at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The house was built by Don Jose Serrano about 1858. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Bennett family got their first electric stove shortly after the house got electricity in 1928 at the Bennett Ranch House at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Docent/teacher Allie Eckert reads to students while roll playing in a one-room schoolhouse at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The El Toro Grammar School was built in 1890 and later moved to this location. It housed grades 1-8 and was used until 1914. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Docent Allie Eckert talks to visitors inside St. George's Episcopal Mission at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The mission was built in 1891 and moved to this location. The interior furnishings are original. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The dining room is made for dinner at the Serrano Adobe at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest. The house was built by Don Jose Serrano about 1858. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
St. George's Episcopal Mission at the Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest was built in 1891 and later moved to this location. The interior furnishings are original. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Dwight Whiting purchased about 9,000 acres in 1884 and named it Whiting Ranch. COURTESY OF SADDLEBACK AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Dwight Whiting wrote "Fruit Farming For Profit" in 1893 as a way to market the community of El Toro to potential settlers. TEXT BY DAVID WHITING, COURTESY OF SADDLEBACK AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The El Toro Schoolhouse was built in 1890 and moved to Heritage Hill in 1976. This photo was taken in 1908. COURTESY OF SADDLEBACK AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Serrano Adobe after the Whitings' renovations were completed, circa 1935. COURTESY OF SADDLEBACK AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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